Street addresses

Use the street number in preference to a building’s name. However, if you only have a building name, put it by itself on the line immediately above the street name and put any unit or floor above the building name.

Don’t use corner addresses, eg ‘corner Main and High Streets’.

Don’t use street number ranges, eg ‘4-12 Main Street’.

If the street number includes a letter, leave out the space, eg ‘21A Main Street’, not ‘21 A Main Street’.

Use the suburb if it is in common use. You can leave out a central city suburb, eg ‘Auckland Central’.

Don’t use a province, region, district or territory name instead of (or in addition to) the town or city name.

Rural addresses

Use 'RD' plus the RD number instead of a suburb.

'RD' has no spaces or punctuation (eg. 'RD 1' not 'R D 1').

Include the name of a registered occupant if the rural address doesn't have a street number.

Don't use floor levels in rural addresses.

Use the correct mail town – this is the town name of the rural delivery route - it is not always the town where the address is located.

PO Box and Private Bag addresses

If you're using a PO Box or Private Bag address, don't include a street address as well.

You can leave out the box lobby name if it's exactly the same as the town/city name.

Always use a postcode

Unique postal addresses

We have a unique postal address for every delivery point in New Zealand. Addresses are made up of multiple lines of information which vary depending on the type of address. There are three types of New Zealand Post postal address:

Address types shouldn't be combined. For example, you shouldn't combine an urban or rural street address with a PO Box address. All mail items must also show a full return postal address.

Using abbreviations in your addresses

Wherever possible, spell in full each word of your address, including words like ‘Street’ and ‘Road’. If that’s not possible, here are abbreviations you can use.

Unit or floor type

Abbreviation

Apartment

Apt

Flat

Flat

Floor

Fl

Kiosk

Ksk

Level

L

Room

Rm

Shop

Shp

Suite

Ste

Unit

Unit

Villa

Villa

Street type

Abbreviation

Avenue

Ave

Close

Cl

Court

Crt

Crescent

Cres

Drive

Dr

Esplanade

Esp

Grove

Grv

Heights

Hts

Highway

Hwy

Hill

Hl

Lane

Lane

Line

Line

Mall

Mall

Parade

Pde

Place

Pl

Quay

Qy

Rise

Rise

Road

Rd

Square

Sq

Street

St

Terrace

Tce

Way

Way

Street direction

Abbreviation

North

N

East

E

South

S

West

W

Northeast

NE

Southeast

SE

Northwest

NW

Southwest

SW

Upper

Upr

Lower

Lwr

Central

Ctrl

Extension

Ext

Street/suburb/town prefix

Abbreviation

Mount

Mt

Saint

St

Building name

Abbreviation

Building

Bldg

House

Hse

Detailed guides

For more detailed information about address layouts, download the Address and layout guide (PDF - 153KB). This guide covers every type of address, from apartments to farms, and includes examples to help you get your addressing right.

For more detailed information about all the essential elements of a valid New Zealand Post postal address download the Address standards (PDF - 950KB). This includes the contents of address lines, formats for different types of address and acceptable abbreviations.